Robotics and artificial intelligence promise superhuman capabilities to warehouse workers and managers. Last year, Rufus Labs Inc. launched Rufus AI, which works with wearable technology to provide warehouse operations managers with data-driven insights and improve warehouse efficiency. It is an extension of Rufus Labs’ WorkHero dashboard.
In June 2025, the company released WorkHero 6.8, which included several enhancements. They included live tasks available on Android, new WorkHero Universe Tiles to integrate with warehouse management systems (WMS), and new task application programming interfaces (APIs).
“Our customers range from 3PLs [third-party logistics providers] to retail, e-commerce, and manufacturing,” said Gabe Grifoni, CEO of Rufus Labs. “We run the gamut: We’ve got customers with five or 10 warehouse workers to 1,000 across multiple ships.”
Save the date for the 2026 Robotics SummitRufus Labs applies data, AI to optimize workflows
Founded in 2016, Rufus Labs decided to focus on using data collected by stationary and mobile sensors to improve efficiency for workflows such as pick-and-place operations or receiving, said Grifoni. Rufus AI uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT generative AI tool with barcode scanning technology.
“We’re really focused on the software, human intelligence, and automation and understanding those workflows and making them better,” Grifoni told Automated Warehouse. “Today, it’s gloves; tomorrow, it may be vision-based picking with humans and cobots. Our platform evolves to give you productivity as a service.”
While existing conveyors and robots can already move materials, the industry is currently in a transition period to optimize them, he noted.
“Automation and robots are coming not just to the warehouse, but everywhere in the next five to 15 years,” Grifoni said. “It’s an intricate dance between humans and machines, figuring out how they can best work together.”
“Our cloud-based system will have the knowledge of the optimal workflows, and it can apply that knowledge,” he asserted. “We provide a ton of actionable data to our customers, but think of Rufus AI as a data analyst.”
“Instead of having to spend an hour a day pulling spreadsheets and bringing them together, you ask our system: ‘Get me this stuff, merge it with that, and make me a report. Are there any suggestions for how to improve operations based on this?'” explained Grifoni. “It’s no longer just a dashboard that confines you to the widgets onscreen. It’s really going to make the warehouse sing.”
Former Superman lends star power to explain tech
Rufus Labs is based on Los Angeles, which is better known for the entertainment industry than technology. Grifoni is friends with actor and investor Brandon Routh, who starred in Superman Returns and has taken an interest in real-world technologies for superhuman capabilities.
“As I understood more and more what Rufus Labs was doing and how big a shift it could make, it was very exciting,” said Routh. “Here’s the bizarre thing: Gabe pivoted from consumer tech to industrial wearables when I got the job as Ray Palmer [a.k.a. gadgeteer The Atom in Legends of Tomorrow]. It’s all about the possible.”
Combining their talents, Grifoni and Routh made a video (below) to introduce Rufus AI.
“There’s a lot of AI vaporware out there,” Grifoni acknowledged. “We created a video to show how our generative AI tool can help in the supply chain and warehouse space. We’re educating the market in a fun way.”
What’s next for Rufus Labs?
“The feedback has been really great, and we cannot build new features fast enough,” replied Grifoni. “We and our partners such as inVia Robotics are making lives better for workers, saving time and effort, and then our operations side is your AI data analyst. Our customers want solutions, not tan boxes.”
